


SoulTale Shorts

by Kimber_Prime



Series: Soultale [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Loss, Sadness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-06-09 19:18:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6919774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimber_Prime/pseuds/Kimber_Prime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of single chapter stories from the AU SoulTale. </p><p>Some will be character back stories while others will just be random shorts.</p><p>Hope you enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Frisk Backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the story of how SoulTale Frisk ended up in the Underground.

A bird singing was the first sound she heard. 

Opening her eyes Frisk saw the Bluejay sitting on a branch outside her window. It chirped happily in the morning sun before taking flight again. 

The alarm clock on her desk showed it was 8:30am. She’d slept in later than usual. 

Slowly sitting up she stretched, and walked over to open her window. The air outside was freezing, but it smelled great. It was a beautiful day outside.

No time for admiring the weather though, she had a job to do. Frisk lived alone with her grandmother after her parents had died in a car accident. The financial support they received was hardly enough for them to buy groceries and pay rent so Frisk earned extra money wherever she could. She was almost 16 and she did little jobs like cleaning and picking fruit for other people.

She quickly put on a jacket as well as some blue slippers before heading downstairs to get breakfast.

Something was wrong. 

There was no smell of cooking in the house like other mornings, and usually her grandma would come wake her up around this time if she was still asleep. 

“Grandma?” She called out. No response.

Walking downstairs she looked around the kitchen. It was untouched, everything in the same place it had been after dinner the previous night. 

Frisk quickly checked the living room but there was no-one there either. There was also no note which would have been a clear sign that she’d gone out.

Heading back upstairs she went to knock on her grandma’s door.

*Knock knock*

There was no response.

Quietly opening the door she looked inside. “Grandma?”

It was dark in the room with the curtains closed but Frisk could clearly make out a shape in the bed. She walked over and gently touched her grandmothers' exposed shoulder.

“Hey, it’s morning. Time to...” She stopped when her hand touched the skin. It felt cold. 

Gently shaking her grandma she could feel the stiffness in their body. Her grandma had passed away in her sleep.

Frisk felt like someone had shoved a knife in her chest and sank to the ground. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet, she wasn’t ready to be alone!

She sat on the ground sobbing her heart out for a long time before she finally composed herself. Frisk had known that her grandma was old and would eventually pass away. She had to be strong.

Staying at the house wasn’t an option. Now that her grandma was gone she’d stop receiving funding and would be evicted since Frisk alone couldn’t earn enough to pay for rent. She’d have to leave the house.

Standing up she took another glance at her relative, another tear gently sliding down her cheek, before she closed the door behind her.

Going back to her room she quickly got dressed and grabbed her shoulder bag before heading downstairs. She packed food and water as well as all the money that was left in the house. $54 wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

Walking to the dining area she wrote a quick note for the neighbours to let them know what had happened. They weren’t close, but someone had to know that her grandma was gone.

Frisk glanced back upstairs, wishing that this was all just a bad dream, and that she could keep living with her grandmother. They didn’t have much, but they had enough to get by, and most importantly they had each other. These thoughts made the tears start flowing again. 

Walking towards the door Frisk grabbed her cloak off the couch. Her grandmother had made it for her. It was a lovely light greenish blue with fluffy white edges and she wore it every day. It was lovely and warm and really helped against the winter chill.

Donning her cloak and putting on her gloves she walked out the door.

She was standing in the tiny garden in front of the house, looking around briefly. They lived on the edge of town in a very small house with an even smaller garden, but there was no lack of people with quite a few houses packed into a very small area.

Walking over to the neighbours’ house she slipped the note under the door before walking a short distance away to get out of sight.

Frisk didn’t know what to do now. She wanted to get far away from here, away from the hurt, but where to go was the question. Looking around at where to go next she spotted a mountain in the distance and for some reason she felt like she should go there.

She didn’t know why, but with no better plan she decided to do it. Taking one last glance back at the house she set off, a final tear falling from her cheek.

Walking all day she reached a small town by dusk and stayed at a backpackers for the night with the money she had before setting off again at dawn.

She walked another full day before finally reaching the mountain, her food and water almost gone by now. 

The sky was starting to turn dark again by the time she started to climb, and it was pitch black soon after. Stopping would have been the logical choice, but in Frisk’s exhausted mind she couldn’t see reason. She simply kept walking.

Her foot suddenly snagged and she was sent flying, snapping out of her drowsiness immediately. Attempting to reach out and grab something her hands only found empty air and she kept falling.

This is it, Frisk thought to herself. I’m going to die. 

Closing her eyes she waited for the impact.

[](http://postimage.org/)   
[picture upload](http://postimage.org/)


	2. Papyrus Backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The backstory of SoulTale Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In SoulTale having your 'soul spark' is an expression monsters use instead of having your heart sink.

When Papyrus stepped out his door in the morning, he was greeted by a world blanketed in snow. He saw this sight every day of course with Snowdin always being covered by a thick layer of the soft ice crystals, but that didn’t stop him from marvelling at the sight each time.

Another day of guard duty lay ahead of him, and he did not want to disappoint his superiors. Even all these weeks later he could not believe that he was finally an official member of the Royal Guard! 

A huge smile appeared on his face as he thought back to the moment. His best friend and mentor Undyne had asked him to come to the castle, and there King Asgore had let him officially join. His brother Sans had come along and congratulated him with a brotherly embrace and the promise not to make puns that day, a promise he had actually kept! Gaster, his father, had also been there and he’d been practically beaming the whole time.

Snapping out of the happy memory he set off towards his sentry station. He might be a Royal Guard member now, but that also involved him continuing his sentry job. It didn’t bother him though since he loved making all the puzzles he used as traps.

As he reached his station near the Ruins, something on the ground caught his attention. Bending down to get a closer look at the ground before him he realised it was a trail of footsteps. Glancing around the trail appeared to be heading back towards Snowdin via a different path to the one he took.

Papyrus was curious, there wasn’t supposed to be anyone else out here. Standing up he set off after the trail. 

Whoever left the trail was small with the footsteps being very close together. Papyrus would have no trouble making up ground with his long stride.

He considered heading back to let his brother know where he was going but the wind was starting to pick up, creating snow flurries and hindering his vision. The trail was still visible but it was getting fainter. He continued on quickly as the wind began to intensify.

Just as Papyrus was starting to lose the trail completely he saw a figure in the distance. He couldn’t make them out clearly with the wind and the snow turning whoever was ahead into a faint outline, but they were definitely moving.

Gently jogging ahead Papyrus went to catch up with whoever was plodding through the snow. Getting closer they could see the figure was indeed small, perhaps a child. What was a child doing out here he thought to himself.

He tried calling out to the figure a few times but the wind was coming from ahead of him, carrying his voice in the wrong direction. He’d just have to completely catch up to them which wouldn’t take long; the child appeared to be extremely cold with just a simple sweater as their main source of warmth.

Walking up behind them Papyrus gently placed a hand on their shoulder.

“GREETINGS SMALL ONE, ARE YOU ALRI-“

*SHUNK*

Everything seemed to slow down, the world suddenly going in slow motion. It had happened so fast; one moment he was introducing himself to the child and the next he was falling to the ground. Papyrus didn’t know what had happened at first; the child had spun around to face him in one swift motion when suddenly pain seemed to explode in his chest.

Looking up he could see the child standing above him, a shocked look on their face and a knife in their hand. They were staring down at him, their eyes focused on his chest as they raised their hands towards their mouth.

Confused Papyrus tried to see what the child was staring at, but he found himself almost completely unable to move. Taking a few seconds to prepare himself he raised his head and looked down at his torso. 

What he saw made his soul spark.

There was a giant cut right across his chest, cracking off into multiple directions. His eyes wide and fearful Papyrus finally realised what had happened; the child has struck him. He hadn’t been prepared for this. Looking down again he could see his soul through the wound, a crack on its surface as well.

He raised his hands clumsily to the wound as he let his head drop back, having no strength to keep looking down. Bodily wounds could be repaired if a healer treated them before a monster’s hp ran out completely, but there was no cure for a damaged soul. Papyrus was dying.

“*Sob* I-I’m sorry! I-I didn’t mean to... *sob*.” The child was crying freely, realising what they had done. They slowly walked over, clearly seeing the damage inflicted to the skeleton.

“I-I DO...N’T BLAME Y...OU. IT W...WAS AN ACC...IDENT”. Papyrus gasped, his non-existent throat seeming to tighten, making it very hard to speak.

“W-What can I do! *Sob* There must be something I can do!” The child yelled. They’d not meant to harm anyone, but Papyrus had startled them and they’d lashed out in self-defence.

“K-KEEP GO...ING DOWN T...THIS TRAIL. F-FIND M..MY B-BROTHER AND F..ATHER”. 

With tremendous effort Papyrus reached into the pocket of his cape and took out a picture. It had been taken on the day he got to join the Royal Guard; he was wearing his new outfit with his father and brother either side of him. It had been the best day of his life and he always kept the picture with him.

His hand dropped back to the snow.

“T-THIS IS T...HEM. TH...” Papyrus tried to say something else but he wasn’t able to talk anymore. He was starting to fade, and that thought scared him.

The child knelt down and gently took the picture from Papyrus’s hand. Taking a look at it and glancing back to Papyrus they stood up and took off further down the trail, towards Snowdin.

“I’ll find them. I’ll tell them where you are!” They called back as they kept running, their cold and tiredness forgotten.

Papyrus listened to them go, the wind drowning out the soft crunch caused by the snow very quickly.

Was this it? Was he about to fall down? Papyrus was pondering these questions in his mind while his soul burned; a pain that was spreading from his chest to every particle of his body.

What would happen to Sans and Gaster if he died? His brother and father were close of course, but Papyrus had always been the centre of the family. His antics brought excitement to their life, he cared for his family when they got ill, and he was always there to cheer up those who were feeling down. Him disappearing from their lives would be devastating, and he knew it.

He couldn’t die, he just couldn’t. His family needed him; but there was nothing he could do to stop his soul from degenerating at an ever increasing rate. Gently using his magic he could feel the damage to his soul. The crack was getting larger.

It could have been minutes, hours, or days that he was lying there in the snow, Papyrus didn’t know with his body in agony and his mind desperate to hold on, but eventually he could hear a sound. A voice, no two voices, were calling out his name.

Sans and Gaster had come as soon as they’d been informed of what had happened. Running into the clearing they could see Papyrus lying on the ground, half buried by snow. Rushing over to him they gently cleared the snow off him with Gaster gently picking him up straight after. Papyrus himself didn’t really know what was happening anymore, but that didn’t matter since what he did know was that his brother and father were here with him, a tear gently sliding down his skull.

Sans used his powers to teleport them back home and they all rushed into the house. Sans dashed back out, desperate to find a healer while Gaster did what he could to buy Papyrus time after placing him on the couch. Rushing back in with Queen Toriel in tow, the best healer that Sans knew and had teleported to the castle to ask for help from, Sans collapsed next to Papyrus, exhausted from using his powers that much.

Gaster sat his oldest son down on the table to rest before dashing back over to Papyrus to help Queen Toriel. She gasped slightly when she noticed the damaged soul; knowing what it meant. Lowering her hands she looked Gaster in the eye, a tear rolling down her cheek while she gently shook her head. Nothing could be done.

Sans had gotten up again and slowly walked over, tears streaming down his skull. Gaster knelt down and hugged him tight, sobbing so hard he could hardly breathe. Toriel stood back, giving the family their privacy.

Papyrus knew he was at home, the smell of spaghetti still in the air from that morning. Opening his eyes he could see Sans and Gaster beside him, tears streaming down their face.

“P-Paps, don’t l-leave us” Sans sobbed while holding his brother’s hand. He took out the picture that the child had given him and pressed it into Papyrus’s glove. Gaster was attempting to speak but he couldn’t catch his breath long enough between his sobs.

Feeling his soul, Papyrus knew he was about to fall down. He cried freely and gathering up his final strength he managed to say one last thing to his father and brother.

“I...I l-love yo....u....”

Closing his eyes Papyrus felt his body turning to dust.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing he noticed was that the pain was gone. Opening his eyes Papyrus was looking up at the ceiling, just taking a moment to enjoy being pain free.

He suddenly realised that he could hear sobbing from beside him. Sitting up carefully, worried that the pain might suddenly come back, he looked down at his brother and father who were crying in each other’s arms.

“Sans? Dad?” Papyrus asked. They didn’t respond. 

He started reaching out to touch his brother’s shoulder, but the sight of his hand made him freeze. It was transparent; he could look right through it. Looking down at himself he realised that his whole body was in the same state. The giant crack across his chest was also still there.

He realised that he could see his soul straight though his body as well, but what he saw scared him. His soul was still there and the crack was still in it, but it was also hollow. He could only just see the outline of it.

What had happened to him?

Getting up off the couch he knelt down besides his family. Sans was in Gaster’s arms, his face buried in his chest while Gaster’s head was on top of Sans’s. Both were still crying and sobbing vigorously.

“Sans? Dad? Can you hear me?”He asked while trying to catch their eye. Neither responded again.

Reaching out he tried to place a hand on Sans’s shoulder, but it went straight through with the smaller skeleton not even seeming to notice. Papyrus could feel Sans similair to sticking your hand in water, but he couldn't touch him.

Realisation hit Papyrus. His family couldn’t see or hear him, and even worse, they thought he’d died. He didn’t know what had happened to him, but this was worse than falling down; being forced to watch your family suffer and being helpless to comfort them.

Sitting down he wrapped his arms around his brother and father as if he was hugging them, quietly joining in with their sobbing, hopelessness overwhelming him.


End file.
